The Terra-Cotta Dog by Camilleri; Poison Study by Snyder

Still no tape, still a wonky printer situation. The students only seem to be able to print from one computer so I'm reserving it for that purpose.I checked out four books yesterday; two to a faculty member and two to a student. Now to see if I eventually get them back. I could've printed them out a receipt if I had a frickin' printer.

Still doing catalog entry. I want to put the journal and magazine collection on it but the Populi catalog isn't very good for that. It insists on having a bar code for every item and I'm not putting bar codes on the journals. They're not available for check out. Same with some of the other media. Partially I just don't want to hear my boss complain about how long they take to get here when I need to order more bar codes. Brodart orders take forever. They don't make it clear that when you order something that they give the jobs to outside vendors who then take months to get things done. And I can't even call to complain because I don't know who they are. I've been waiting for my outside book return for a month and a half.

CamStudio was a bust. It wouldn't start on my machine and I didn't feel like babying it. So I downloaded Microsoft Expressions 4 which, so far, is working fine. I'm not quite ready to record as I don't have a place to do audio yet. I have a headset here at home I could use but I'd have to record the video there, watch it here and do voice over, and then put the both together there due to where the software is and the fact that I can't be assured quiet there. I'll figure it out. In the meantime I've started a school library blog to give tutorials on research and such using images from the problem step recorder. www.ghntslibrary.blogspot.com.

Also, I am the person in the building to go to with tech problems now that admin is across the street.

I'm reading The Terra-Cotta Dog by Andrea Camilleri. I enjoyed the last book of his and this one is just as interesting, maybe even more. Inspector Montalbano is intelligent and something of a ass at times but he's an interesting ass with redeeming qualities. In this book he has to contend with a fishy grocery store robbery and the secret imparted to him by a dying big crime figure. It's an easy read and again there are cultural notes at the back.

I'm reading Poison Study by Maria V. Snyder. This is a fantasy book about a young woman who gets a stay of execution if she'll agree to be the Commander's food taster. The writing is pretty decent and it reads easily even if the author has the annoying habit of ending chapters when something dramatic has happened or been said and then just picks up in the exact same place in the next chapter, often with the next line of dialogue in the conversation. This book might turn out to be a romance disguised as a fantasy but well-enough done to hold. The world she's created of a kingdom taken over by what's basically a military dictatorship is interestingly different from over books with the same feel. The Commander isn't arbitrarily tyrannical, he's a ruler. It's not a place I'd want to live but it's not stupidly harsh. You can understand his reasoning behind his laws even if you think they're too much. It's easy to imagine resistance naturally coming about as people grow tired of the strict laws rather than like other conquered fantasy worlds where an underground resistance movement headed by one savior defies cackling despots who kick puppies and molest children. Anyway, it has been a good read so far.

I haven't given up on First Drop though I sincerely want to drop kick it into the river.